Page 76 of The CEO Alpha’s Substitute Mate

It takes me a second to answer. “Make sure she is.”

By the time Salar is done, the door pushes open, and I catch my son’s scent. Luca stumbles inside, his face pale. His injuries aren’t much. Ariela took the brunt of it. But he’s terrified, and I can smell his fear.

For a moment, I look at him. If this was my father, he would have told me to learn a lesson from this. But I’m not my father, as I’m learning.

“Come here.”

Luca hurries to my side, and I put my hand on his shoulder. “Your mother protected you today. There will always be people who will want to hurt you and the people you love. This is why you have to become strong so you can protect your family.”

My voice is grave, and Luca clings on to me. “Mama…”

“She will be fine. Nothing will happen to her. I promise you.”

I tighten my grip on his shoulder. “Stay here with her. I’ll be back.”

The guards are on the front gravel when I come out, forty of them, standing in ranks in the dark with the floodlights up. Their captain has nothing for me. The patrols ran clean, and every rotation went out at the correct hour before coming back at it. I let him finish before I ask whether all of his men came back. He checks his tablet twice before he answers me.

“Two haven’t reported in, Alpha. That’s Kessler and Voight, on the west line.”

Damien and Isabella come up the drive twenty minutes later on foot. There’s a tear through Isabella’s forearm packed with somebody’s shirt, and Damien is filthy to the shoulder.

“We found your two men,” Damien reports. “They’re both dead about a mile up the west fence. Somebody put wire cutters through eleven feet of the boundary, then dragged the brush back over the gap afterward.” He wipes his mouth. “That cut was made hours before we ever went out for a run. Somebody knew you planned to take Luca out today.”

It doesn’t make sense. I look at the faces of my men. “The plan was set in motion this morning. Unless a member of the staff alerted them, it’s not possible for word to have gotten out.”

Damien meets my gaze. “I’ll interrogate them.”

I’m not a fool to think that my own people will always remain loyal to me. Money can go a long way in switching loyalties. I’ve seen it happen and made it happen.

I nod.

Isabella’s injury is still bleeding, and I murmur, “Tell Salar to take a look at you.”

She lifts her arm and grimaces. “I hope this doesn’t scar.” Her eyes move toward the doorway. “Ariela?”

“She’s fine. She will be fine.”

“I tried to keep one alive.” She sounds weary. “I knew you wanted at least one alive, but he had me by the throat—”

“I’ll find out who it was.” My voice is harsh. “I always do.”

Damien takes her inside with a hand under her elbow, and I watch the two of them leave, my face not revealing the rage burning inside. My wolf is too close to the surface tonight. It wants blood.

They touched our mate.

Any other day, I would have been shocked at the vocal thought, but tonight—tonight the thought of the limp woman in my arms makes me feral.

Then we make a river of blood run through this pack again, I tell him, my claws sheathing and unsheathing. Let them know what happens when they touch me and mine.

Chapter 15

Ariela

Pain wakes me before anything else does. It sits high in my left thigh, beating, and for a few seconds, I lie in a bed I don’t recognize with no idea why any part of me hurts. Then I remember the lake, the wolves.

I jerk upright too fast, and pain tears through my thigh. Ignoring the wrenching pain, I look around with wild eyes. “Luca! Luca?!”

“Take it easy.” Salar is in the chair by the window with a book open on his knee, and he’s on his feet before I’ve got my elbows under me. “He’s fine. He’s having dinner.”